Admiral Augustus Keppel 1st Viscount PC 1725 1786 officer Royal Navy Seven Years' War War of American Independence
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Admiral Augustus Keppel, 1st Viscount Keppel PC (25 April 1725 – 2 October 1786) was an officer of the Royal Navy during the Seven Years' War and the War of American Independence. During the final years of the latter conflict he served as First Lord of the Admiralty. When Spain joined France in 1762 he was sent as second in command with Sir George Pocock in the British expedition against Cuba which took Havana. His health suffered from the fever which carried off an immense proportion of the soldiers and sailors. The £25, 000 of prize money which he received freed him from the unpleasant position of 'younger son of a family ruined by the extravagance of his father'. Until the fall of Lord North's ministry he acted as an opposition member of parliament. He was MP for Chichester from 1755 to 1761, then for Windsor from 1761 to 1780 and finally for Surrey from 1780 to 1782. When North's government fell in 1782 he became First Lord, was raised to the peerage as Viscount Keppel, of Elveden in the County of Suffolk, and sworn of the Privy Council. His career in office was not distinguished, and he broke with his old political associates by resigning as a protest against the Peace of Paris. He finally discredited himself by joining the Coalition ministry formed by North and Fox, and with its fall disappeared from public life.